The Danger of Flower Throwing
In response to the news that US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was welcomed by flower-throwing protesters when he visited the city of Hama on Thursday and Friday, Mustapha, of the Beirut Spring Blog, recalled the fickle nature of flower throwers: in 1982, Lebanese southerners greeted the invading Israeli army with flowers. While this seems … Read more
Rebuttal of Yonaton Touval’s Haaretz Article
As any reader of this blog knows I like to spend my time reading lots of articles that I disagree with. I will not go into the reasons why. Every now and again I get it in my head that I should create a blog piece about an article and let people see the inaccuracies … Read more
Has Palestine Had Enough of Fayyad?
Salam Fayyad, the western-educated economist/Prime Minister of the West Bank, has been the point man for western backed development efforts throughout Palestine. Fayyad’s institution-based approach to development and his unwavering support for peace with Israel has won over many converts throughout the United States and Europe who have made a habit of promising (and occasionally … Read more
Obama Still Does Not Understand the Middle East Part II
As I mentioned in the first installment of this blog piece, given Obama’s Middle East speech it is more than evident by more than just timing he does not understand the Arab World. His inability to go past generic US slogans of freedom, human rights, and economic opportunity shows his sticking to the status quo … Read more
Nakba Day Protests over the Weekend
I apologize to all readers of this blog for I have no posted anything in some days. I was shot in the head by the Israeli Army or Border Police at a peaceful protest in the West Bank village of Al-Nabi Saleh with a metal tear gas canister at close range. If you are interested in … Read more
Israeli Minister Calls for Re-Occuppying West Bank, is this a Step towards One State?
Yesterday Yisrael Katz, Minister of Transport, called on Israel to reoccupy the West Bank if the Palestinians declare statehood in September in the UN. Now this is not news per se as every month, regardless of the statehood vote, an Israeli minister makes this call. Some argue for an annexation, and some argue for a reoccupying. … Read more
Fayyad unable to pay PA employees because of Israel’s withholding of due funds
It was reported today that Salam Fayyad the Palestinian Prime Minister will be unable to pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority workers (viewed here) at their full wage for this month. This is a result of Israel’s withholding of Palestinian taxes due to them under the conditions of Olso and can be viewed here. As the article explains … Read more
Is the Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation as threatening as the Israeli Government makes it out to be?
With the buzzing news surrounding the reconciliation deal struck between Fatah and Hamas there seems to be the usual nay-sayers to a just peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. These nay-sayers include the US Congress, Lieberman, Netanyahu, and Barak, or simply the US and Israeli governments. After the signing of the unity agreement Lieberman pronounced … Read more
Abbas Warns US About Obstructing UN Statehood Declaration?
It seems Mahmoud Abbas is trying to rally the world behind his unilateral declaration of statehood idea by visiting and discussing the issue with world leaders. He has succeeded in persuading a good amount of countries, including EU countries, to the case for his unilateral decision but the most important state actor the United States … Read more
Palestinian Prisoner’s Day
To give recognition to all those Palestinians in Israeli prisons, April 17th, 1974 was declared Palestinian Prisoner’s Day. The day is April 17th because the first prisoner swap was done on this day releasing Mahmoud Hijazi from an Israeli jail. Since the occupation began over 650,000 Palestinians have been in Israeli jail and is sometimes used … Read more
